It's that time of the year again - it's the premier event in Pokemon Go: Global Go Fest! Thankfully, I can say that this event was actually fun and worth attending. This year, the primary focus was on the crowned forms of Zamazenta and Zacian, with both being featured in raids. There were also the usual features such as rotating habitats, collection and hourly challenges, as well as a paid ticket being available. Naturally I paid for the ticket since it's brought me value the last few years.
Day 1:
Honestly I'd say it's a given with these events that the first day is more fun than the second - everything is all fresh and exciting. It's always great fun slowly completing all the new research that's given to you the moment the clock strikes ten. Compared to the last couple global events, I'm happy to say that the shiny rates were actually increased, but that's to be expected following Go Fest trends. I caught two shinies within my first 500 metres of playing though, so I was pretty much instantly in the mood to play. I started with a shiny red Floette, a colour not usually catchable within my region. Caught two shiny Houndours after which is perfect since I instantly completed the family! One downside to this event is that many of the available Pokemon have already had events where they had been shiny-boosted, thankfully though the majority of my catches did not include these!
Zamazenta was the raid focus of today, with it taking up the vast majority of raid spawns throughout the day. I'm happy to say that after 43 raids, I was able to score both a shiny as well as a perfect one! The latter even came after I had already acquired enough candy to max it, so it instantly rose to be my second highest point Pokemon. I've heard that apparently Zacian is a significantly better attacker in Max Battles, but I decided to max both his Behemoth Bash move as well as his Max Guard. I did not have enough candy for his Max Spirit, but I have a level 50 Blissey to fill that role anyway. Alongside Zamazenta, I also caught a perfect Skarmory, with the two being the only perfect Pokemon I caught in the event.
Another highlight of the day was having a complete stranger join our party of three, making it complete. It was an unusual but enjoyable experience but I wish I wasn't so awkward the entire time. Great guy though, hope you're doing well Ryan!
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| Day 1 Shiny Pokemon |
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| Day 1 Shiny Pokemon |
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| Day 1 Shiny Pokemon |
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| Perfect Pokemon |
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| A Perfect Level 50 Zamazenta! |
Day 2:
For the second day I went completely solo. Zacian was the raid focus today, and my primary goal was to collect enough candy to max both Zacian itself, as well as it's Behemoth Blade move. The new Campfire group Pokestops/gyms made this a breeze though, with my community's ambassador placing these markers in the gaps found between gyms. This allowed for almost continuous raids while walking as long as the raids were actually Zacian... I ended up getting the necessary candy much quicker than expected, but unfortunately my best Zacians were 94%s, and I desire only perfection after my Zamazenta yesterday. I've done a couple lucky trades since but to no avail, I will be doing one more with my shiny soon though.
On the topic of shinies, my very first one was a Karrablast, with the Zacian coming in on the tenth raid. Honestly I felt like the shiny rates were nerfed today - I played significantly sweatier today and struggled to match the amounts I was getting while casually strolling yesterday. I suppose that's how odds work though, I can't win every time. I got a few new shinies today at a rate of 50/50 in terms of whether I had already caught one. The Skiddo/Pachirisu were my main goals but my favourites are Piplup and Elgyem - the latter looks so much more evil compared to his non-shiny counterpart.
I'll also take this moment to pronounce my new love for Skiddo, I discovered over the course of the weekend that I actually adore this damn goat - he's amazing. I assume I just didn't use him in my X/Y playthrough since he would've become my favourite otherwise. The shiny isn't my favourite though, like it's alright but just not perfection.
The second day brings fatigue as always though, and I was out of willpower by the second half of the day. After getting enough candy for my Zacian, I only really had shinies left as a goal to pursue. But as I said earlier, the majority had already been caught through other events. This in conjunction with what felt like a lesser boost when compared to the first day, meant I lost interest and decided to end my day. I also ran out of Pokeballs which probably didn't help. It's also a bit embarrassing to admit, but I spend genuinely most of the last hour chasing a shiny Klefki, and I only just discovered while writing this that it isn't even available...
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| Day 2 Shiny Pokemon |
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| Day 2 Shiny Pokemon |
Final Thoughts:
It's always nice to finally play an event that actually feels like it's worth the effort of traveling to and playing for a large period of time. Zacian/Zamazenta are both desirable Pokemon to raid for and have amazing uses, the shiny rate boost was actually noticeable, and the research tasks weren't tedious or too difficult to complete. The sour taste in my mouth from the last two major events has been cleansed, and I'm hopeful that the recently announced Go Fest Finale event follows the trend this event set.
Also on a semi-related note, catching the Volcanion from research means that I finally have the means to completing my Home living dex from generations 1-8, meaning that I should be able to recieve the special style Magearna! I've been at this stage for a couple years, with Volcanion being a roadblock in it's completion. It's a real damn shame that I got a 96% though...
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| 96% Volcanion |
The passes were also another feature that became trivially easy with this event, it became something like 25 points for a single catch, meaning both the June and Ancients passes were completed in no time! I don't think I'm ever going to fully complete another pass again unless they have another event with similarly generous point distributions.
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| Rank 500 Completed Pass |
Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope to see you soon!
dl
